I wanted to check something with the wording on the Combo Enhance ability on Curse of the Ancient Mariner. The ability reads:

Combo E (6+): This Attack gets Powerful:X. X equals the amount the control check to play this ability was modified by card effects.

My question is this. Does the ability only track the final result of all modifications or does it track all modifications independently?

For example:

I have a shadow flare in my card pool which has a static ability "While this cad is in your card pool, all control checks get -1" and I have Wild Storm which has the ability E (5+): All control checks get +1 for the rest of the turn. I attempt to use the combo E on Curse and pull a 4 (the +1 and -1 from the previous cards cancel each other out) which I modify using Chasing After the Power (R destroy this foundation: After you make a control check that check gets +2.) to pass the check. What is the powerful rating?

Is it 4 (taking account of the -1 from shadow flare, the +1 from Wild Storm, and the +2 from Chasing after the power)

or is it 2 (the final check was modified to be 2 higher than the actual check)

So, basically I'm asking whether or not it tracks ALL the modifications, positive and negative (as in the first case), or if it just checks for the final modification of the check (the final amount the check was changed from the printed check as in the second case)

Thanks in advance

Would commiting foundations to add to the check count as modifiying it?

Lord Aries said:

No.

Based on what I remember of past rulings, you'll get Powerful:4 in that scenario.

i would think it would be the amout the control check changed

After talking with my playgroup we came up with the consensus that it would be powerful: 4 from that situation so I think that's an unofficial answer for now.